Fans respond to Capcom’s Street Fighter Alpha surprise

Last week in the comments section of SCEA’s PlayStation Blog, Capcom’s John Diamonon revealed that a Street Fighter surprise would be unveiled yesterday and available on Thursday.

True to their word Capcom’s Senior Product Marketing Manager on SFIV, known as Gerald, yesterday announced on Capcom’s Blog that Street Fighter Alpha would be available as a new PSone Classics game for download on the PlayStation Network this Thursday.

The reaction to the announcement has been mixed, with some gamers lapping up new content but most bitterly disappointed that the surprise did not relate to Street Fighter IV. Many SF fans seem to have anticipated that the surprise in store related to Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, or more particularly the beta for the game that is only available to Xbox 360 owners.

PS3 fans have been left in the cold following Capcom’s decision to make the beta available exclusively on Xbox Live Arcade. Recently the beta was extended and a patch released to fix problems that dogged the beta from the get go. This seems to have rubbed salt in the wound of some gamers who feel the beta should have been made available to PS3 owners as well.

More SF goodness

In Capcom’s defense Gerald did round off his announcement about Street Fighter Alpha by stating that “I’ll be bringing more SF goodness to you guys….maybe next time it will be SFIV stuff.” This promise of more SF goodness was backed up by John Diamonon who reiterated the statement in the comments section of the announcement and elaborated “This is just the start of more things to come with Street Fighter.”

Diamonon didn’t end the discussion there either, taking up a reader’s suggestion that Capcom read PS3 fans reactions to the announcement on a forum. Diamonon left the following comment, “I can understand that you’re upset that this wasn’t as big of a surprise as you and other people on this board anticipated. You know, there’s that saying that you can’t please everyone. So, does that mean we shouldn’t try to give PS fans anything? Street Fighter Alpha is a start.”

“Grant hinted there was more ‘Street Fighter goodness’ to come. You know what? Both Grant and I came from Sony as game testers. We still have a lot of friends over there (and at Microsoft as well) and we have no reason to give PS fans the shaft. Just know that there are things we can’t talk about at this point and that we’re making an effort. Again, this is the first of many things to come and we appreciate all you Capcom fans who continue to support us. For those we’ve lost along the way, we haven’t forgot about you and continue to listen to your feedback as long as it’s constructive. So go to our forums, tell us what you want. We’re listening.”